In honor of Earth Day, April 22, 2011, here are 11 unusual ways to be green:

1. Dumpster Diving: taking good stuff directly from a dumpster, trash collection site or landfill. Word of warning: make sure it is legal to do this in the location you are planning. This keeps the items that were, in your opinion, wrongly thrown away from being buried deep within and adding to the planet’s trash.
2. Metal Detecting: this takes good stuff out of the ground. It also helps clean up the Earth’s insides, so to speak. Also, while you are out pickup any trash you find and dispose of it properly. It helps clean up the environment too.
3. Beach Combing: while looking for seashells, don’t forget to look for lost items (that might be swept out to sea when the tide returns). You might be able to return these items to the rightful owner or turn into the authorities. What if you find a set of keys? The person that lost them would appreciate their return. Also, pickup any trash you find or that washes up on the beach. It helps keep our oceans clean.
4. Volunteer at a recycling center. I’m sure these facilities can use free help for a day.
5. Collect Aluminum cans on the ground and in your house. Turning these cans in for recycling helps the environment, plus you might get some gas money (who couldn’t use some of that right now).
6. Turn your old Tires into flowerbeds. Paint the tires, fill them up with top soil and you have a beautiful raised flowerbed.
7. Set up a recycling container at home or work.
8. Help clean up a waterway, such as a creek or river. The trash gets in the water and creates problems too. Trash isn’t only found on the land.
9. Fix something that belongs to a friend. If you are mechanically inclined and your friend’s lawn mower tore up, try to fix it for your friend, so that broken lawn mower doesn’t wind up in the landfill. In this disposable society, people often throw away something and buy a new one, when they can’t fix the item. This also goes for things like computers. Not to mention, your friend will love you even more for helping them. Now that’s a good neighbor.
10. Create a crafty item with commonly thrown away items. For example, scratched DVD’s and CD’s could make a nice painting surface, so you could practice your skills or create your masterpiece.
11. Post an unwanted, still in good condition, item (gift) on Ewishingwell (www.ewishingwell.com) to give away, rather than trash it.

Have fun with these unusual ways to celebrate Earth Day. We would love for you to post your stories or experience in the comments below, if you celebrate using any of these items.

Happy Earth Day!

~Vicki
Official Wish Grantor
(www.ewishingwell.com)

If you haven’t looked at your calendar for coming days this week, Friday to be exact, here’s your advance warning. Earth Day is April 22, 2011.

Are you looking for a new way to celebrate Earth Day this year? Join Ewishingwell (www.ewishingwell.com)! Not only do we help make wishes come true, we keep great items out of the landfills. Post an item to giveaway as a gift to someone and keep your item out of the trash can. While you are on Ewishingwell, if you see an item you like, claim it and keep the person from throwing it away. These activities can be done all year long, not just on Earth Day. Make a commitment to the planet and have fun at the same time. It’s green with a twist (nope we aren’t a lime). Become a member of the Ewishingwell community, you won’t regret it.

Did you know? Earth Day was first held on April 22, 1970 as a grassroots movement. It was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin. See you learn something new every day, or at least I did while researching this blog article. I didn’t know Earth Day was older than me (oops, I’m giving away my age…LOL). The 1990 Earth Day provided a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide. Thank goodness I remember celebrating this Earth Day. I was wearing my cool Earth Day T-shirt in Florida.

This is what my Earth Day T-Shirt looked like, but it was white.

If you want to know more about Earth Day visit, http://www.earthday.org/ and/or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day.

HAVE A GREAT 2011 EARTH DAY!!! I know I will…I’m going to post a couple items to giveaway rather than throw away. Wouldn’t momma Earth be so proud?

P.S.- Be sure to tell all your friends about Earth Day this Friday, in case they haven’t looked at their calendar. And visit Ewishingwell’s Blog (http://ewishingwell.com/blog/) again for more interesting ideas for celebrating Earth Day.

~Vicki Priebe
Official Wish Grantor
(www.Ewishingwell.com)

“Freecycle sucks, it stinks, it’s outdated”, says many former users (google it and see for yourself).

Freecycle has been an excellent website since it’s inception on May 1st, 2003. It has kept many useful items out of the landfills. However, it is not really a website after all.

Here’s the definition of Freecycle from their website:

“Freecycle(TM) is an email list where people give away things that they no longer need for free.”

It is really an email list that has human moderators. The users have to join their local Freecycle Network group through Yahoo Groups to become a member. You can’t even view the types of items people are giving away or wanting without becoming a member first and joining the Yahoo Group. As some of you know already, your membership may be denied based on your locality.

Fast forward seven years. The Internet has definitely changed, as technology always does. There is a fun and exciting new answer to giving away free items and wishing for things. Welcome to Ewishingwell (www.ewishingwell.com).

Ewishingwell (www.ewishingwell.com) is designed with the need of it’s users in mind. As one blogger commented after visiting the website. “Ewishingwell is MUCH BETTER than Freecycle.” It is the answer people are searching for: it’s green, easy, fast, kind, fun, exciting, social, and FREE!

There are no moderators (humans) waiting to approve your listing. However, there is a restricted items list which is designed to keep everything posted on the website within the law. Ewishingwell’s users can post as many wishes for items as they want. Unlike Freecycle’s one or two a month limit.

Here’s the best part: you are not limited to your local community on Ewishingwell (as you are with Freecycle). Ewishingwell touches all of North America. You can mail the items or grant someone’s wish across North America. Heck, if you want to give away the big stuff (like a couch), you can limit your wish or gift to your local community, if you choose. Ewishingwell doesn’t limit the location, the user does.

If you’re one of the people who likes to perform Random Acts of Kindness, your life just got a little brighter. You can search the site for a wish to grant or giveaway an item anytime you feel the urge welling up inside you.

Ewishingwell has a fast sign up process (just like most websites of today have). You can surf through the items and wishes without even signing in or becoming a registered user. The website is very Easy and Fun to use. The best part is it’s Free! There are no excuses for you not to try it. You’ll Love it!

Ewishingwell is the website of Today, not the email list of yesterday. It’s a very user friendly, exciting and fun to use website! REMEMBER: Anything is possible at Ewishingwell (www.ewishingwell.com)! Real People, Real Wishes, Real Fun!

One of my friends recently declared, I’m Going Green!  I paused for a moment and said, “You’re turning into Shrek.”  I couldn’t help giggling as I said it.  I knew exactly what she meant; she was becoming a Tree Hugger/Bunny Hugger type person (whatever term you use).  How could we continue to be friends?  She is going to be this extremist, vegetarian, boss me around type friend and tell me what I can and can’t do that is good for the environment.  I conveyed my concern about our friendship.  She assured me it was going to be nothing like that at all.  Oh sure, I can hear all our future conversations about why I can’t have a hamburger at lunch, when I really wished I could.   

Going green by using broken glass from a bottle Going Green means reusing broken items

Sound familiar to you?  Has anyone had this fear or concern over a person that they love “Going Green”?  If not, I’m sure you will someday. 

What is meant by going green?  It can mean different things to different people.  Some people buy fuel efficient vehicles, some change the way they do things at home, some change the way they eat, some commit to recycling, some consume less and so on and so forth – you get the idea.  Some people find the happy medium and do a bit of it all.  It depends completely on your level of commitment to going green.

If everyone would change at least one little habit, it would make a big difference.  You don’t have to let it control your life, if you don’t want it to.  For instance, let’s say your Nintendo DS just broke its hinges.  Now you are NOT the technology repair type person and you know it.  To take it to someone to fix this problem would cost about as much as a new one.  So in this disposable society we live in, you don’t give it a second thought and rush out to buy a new one.  What are you going to do with the old broken one?  What else would you do – throw it away!  It is no longer of use to you.

That’s a horrible approach to the problem.  I don’t have a problem with someone going out and investing the money on a new machine.  However, I have a problem with throwing away the old one.  Just think about it.  There is someone out there that IS the technology repair type.  They are wishing they had your broken gadget before it hits the trash.  They probably have a broken one at home with a different problem and would LOVE to have it for PARTS.  Yep, I said it – PARTS! 

All you have to do is find the person that wants a broken one.  I know it’s like searching for a needle in a hay stack.  How do you go about finding them and not wasting too much of your precious time?  I have a simple, fast, and great answer for you.  Post it on Ewishingwell (www.ewishingwell.com), so you can give it away to someone who could really use it. 

Have you ever broken a glass vase, bottle, or any beautiful glass object?  Chances are you have broken something beautiful.  Sometimes you think, what a shame, it was such a beautiful colored bottle.  Rather than throwing the large or medium pieces away.  You could post the listing on Ewishingwell for the broken glass.  I’m sure someone out there would love the glass to use in stain glass or other craft projects.  Have you ever thought about giving new life to a broken plate?  I’m sure another person would LOVE to use it in creating a beautiful table top.  As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  

Going green by using broken glass to make a table top.

If you didn’t know it, by doing this you are taking a step towards going green.  You don’t have to be a Tree Hugger or Bunny Hugger to do something great for the planet.  You can be an ordinary person, who still eats hamburgers, keeps your appliance’s plugged into the wall, and drives a gas guzzling tank.

Heck, you might enjoy this one going green task so much that you add other tasks into your routine.  You’ll see how EASY it is and how HAPPY it makes the other person.   Go on give it a try, I dare you!

Do you wish you had some broken items that you can use in your projects?  Let us know, so our users know to post them up and gift them to you.  (If we were clumsy enough to break them in the first place.)

~Vicki

Official Wish Grantor

(www.ewishingwell.com)